The communication needs of a modern business person are many and varied. During the course of a typical day, many such persons receive, create, review, act upon, respond to, alter, and/or send a wide variety of both tangible and electronic messages. Such messages, for example, include letters, memorandum, and reports appearing both on paper and in electronic form, facsimiles, graphic information in both tangible and electronic forms, spreadsheet information (either in the form of a report or in the context of a spreadsheet application program), and a wide variety of small notes, such as instructions, inquiries, or comments and the like as scribbled by hand on tangible copies of such documents. All of the above, and other examples of like kind, can generally be considered as visual information (as versus, for example, oral information).
In the context of a typical office setting, such visual information comprises an acceptable and relatively efficient manner of facilitating communication between co-workers and others in a substantially time sensitive manner. When a business person travels away from his or her office, however, access to this visual message infrastructure is essentially lost. As a substitute, most time sensitive issues are dealt with orally by use of a telephone. Facsimile transmissions, overnight delivery services, and wireline modem equipped portable computers also provide some measure of visual information exchange when away from the office, but represent only a small portion of the overall visual messaging capabilities that are available in an office environment.
Accordingly, a need exists for a communication solution that will address the above concerns.